Its taste and texture closely resemble those of the Puerto Rican pan de agua and the Mexican bolillos.

It is baked on makeshift ovens fueled with coconut husks, and usually sold alongside pan de coco.

[10] The precursor of the pandesal was pan de suelo ("[oven] floor bread"), a local Spanish-Filipino version of the French baguette baked directly on the floor of a wood-fired oven called a pugón.

Since wheat is not natively produced in the Philippines, bakers eventually switched to more affordable yet inferior flour, resulting in the softer, doughy texture of the pandesal.

[1][12] Baking of pandesal in pugón has declined due to a nationwide ban on cutting mangrove trees for fuel, and bakers shifted to using gas-fired ovens.